INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT OF FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS IN KAZAKHSTAN

Abstract

Positive trend on the number of female entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan has been noticed in recent
years. Female entrepreneurs are provided with enormous opportunities in countries with transitional
economy including Kazakhstan. However, researches provided in developing countries and countries
with transitional economies found out that female entrepreneurs are not provided with proper institutional
environments, and it serves as a significant problem for them in making a decision to start and/or
maintain the business. The barriers exist in the form of heavy tax rates, lack of finance, ineffective banking
system, traditional restricted social norms and values and ever-changing legal-system. The aim of this
paper was to explore the institutional environment of female entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan and identify
how institutional environment influences women’s decision to start and/or maintain their businesses.
This theoretical paper with secondary data analyzes investigates whether the institutional environment of
women is positively correlated with female entrepreneurial opportunities; and whether this opportunity
positively influenced the number of female entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan or not. In order to test those
two hypotheses, the researches put the objectives of, firstly, to review the existing literature concerning
the institutional environment of female entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan and countries with transitional
economies; secondly, to analyze the cases of institutions surrounding and influencing the operations of
female entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan; and, lastly, to compare the findings with the theoretical framework
and make a decision to accept/reject the hypotheses.